Visual Education (Jan 1923-Dec 1924)

April, 1923 107 A Controlled Experiment with a Visual Aid Using a motion picture lesson in physics in combination with text and oral instruction, by way of review N. G. WlLTSE Principal, Junior High School, Ypsilanti, Michigan THE following experiment was conducted in the Junior High School at Ypsilanti, March 13-16, 1923, with the purpose of measuring the effect of the film when used as an aid in correlation Avith oral, text and reference instruction. Sixty pupils participated, drawn from the A and B classes of the eighth-grade General Science groups. On Tuesday a few minutes were taken from the study period of the entire group to explain to the pu Average Test Standing: A's B's Both pils that they were to review the subject of "Magnetism," which had been studied some weeks before. Directions for this review were given, and it was strongly impressed upon the class that reference books were to be freely used and that every one should make it a point to find out all he possibly could about the subject. No studying of the subject was done during this period. When the groups met on Wednesday, the 14th, thirty-five minutes were, devoted to looking up the references, followed by twenty-five minutes of recitation and instruction. On Thursday a one-reel film on "Magnetism" — the first reel of the series on elementary physics filmed by Dr. Harvey B. Lemon at Ryerson Physical Laboratory of the University of Chicago — was shown to a section composed of about onehalf of the A-class and one-half of the B-class pupils participating in the experiment. The showing of the film consumed fifteen minutes. On Friday a "follow-up test" was given to the entire group — both to those who had not seen the film and those who had. The results were as shown in the tabulation. These results appear to indicate that pupils who are more backward under traditional methods of instruction (and who for that reason were placed in the "B" class) receive the largest comparative bene 1 hr. lesson 15 min. film 90.42 77.6 83.79 1 hr. lesson only 85.41 69 78.3 fit from the use of visual aids in the classroom. In working out an experiment of this type, there are several factors which cannot be readily expressed in figures. In this case all such factors noted appeared to be favor Correcting a Delusion EVERY few days some one breaks out through the press with the statement that there are 40,000 or 50,000 (figures are unimportant just so long as they are large enough) moving-picture machines in the schools, churches, clubs, and other non-theatrical institutions of the country. Once for all, we should like to make the statement that no such number of non-theatrical projectors is in use. The Society for Visual Education has made a careful survey of this field, through the heads or secretaries of these schools, churches, clubs, etc., and is in a position to state authoritatively that the entire number of nontheatrical machines in use today does not exceed 15,000. able to the practice of using related films of the right sort in combination with oral and text instruction. These were : 1. The pupils' attitude toward the zvork of learning the subject. It was found that every pupil was eager to see the film, and that attention and interest did not lag during the entire experiment. 2. The clarity of the concepts gained by pupils. One must actually % of advantage, Difference lesson with, film over in grade lesson alone 5.01 5.87 8.6 12.46 5.49 7 review the test papers to catch the real significance of a statement that the concepts gained by those who had seen the film were very much superior to the concepts gained by those who had had the text and oral instruction only. Any teacher knows that some papers which must be scored with a perfect mark are far less rich in concepts than others which can be given no higher rating. I believe this statement is true regardless of the mark given. 3. Freedom of expression. It was found that the pupils who had seen the film expressed themselves with much more freedom than the others, and invariably used better English. It is planned to give a retention test a little later, the results of which will throw still more light on the worth-while features of this experiment.